Ontario family takes school board to human rights tribunal for allegedly refusing to allow autism therapy

TORONTO — An Ontario family has launched a human rights complaint against a school board in an effort to get a popular form of therapy for autistic children provided to their son in class.

Beth Skrt of Mississauga, Ont., alleges the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board has consistently refused to allow her five-year-old son Jack to receive Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) in class.

She says Jack has been receiving and benefiting from the therapy at an off-site facility he attends multiple days a week. Her son is also supported by education resource workers in class but she argues they are not equipped to provide the same level of therapy.

Skrt says her family offered to cover the cost of private ABA professionals to work with her son at school, but she says the board won’t allow it.

The family has brought the issue before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, seeking the right to provide ABA for Jack in his classroom.

The lawyer representing the board at the tribunal — which began hearing the case this week — did not indicate what arguments she planned to make, but says Dufferin-Peel supports providing appropriate educational services for all.